French SE Promotion - I don't need a .FR domain?

Does host/registrar matter? Is .FR meaningless?

[martinibuster]

I did some searches and it seemed that .FR had preferred ranking by some search engines (followed by .com), but in general what mattered was the French Content.

To best optimize a site for France however, is it the consensus that a person should opt for a .FR domain?

Or will a well optimized site in the French language perform as well?

Thanks!

[louponne]

it seemed that .FR had preferred ranking by some search engines

Which SE? I have never noticed that myself - as far as I'm concerned, .com = .fr for the directories and search engines. On the other hand, yes, you absolutely need French content of course!

[DeepIndex]

Yes the french content is more important than the TLD in it self. But on some localized SE a .FR might givesome more view (ex. altavista i think). On my own se, i do filter on TLD on second search.

I think still it is important to have local tld, not specially for the SE but for the costumers which might feel more confident with a local TLD website.

best regards

[louponne]

not specially for the SE but for the costumers which might feel more confident with a local TLD website.

Wha? You really think that many French even know the difference between a .com and a .fr?

[DeepIndex]

I'm not sure that many french people do make the difference between a dot.com tld and a dot.fr . But i think that they do in their mind prefer to buy at an .FR than a .COM. Why?

The contraints to buy a local TLD is more important than a .COM which is open to every one who has a few dollars, where you never know who is behind it.

[louponne]

I disagree entirely. I think maybe 1% of French users even realize they're on a .fr or a .com and of those 1% maybe 1% know the difference. None of my clients, when they were deciding whether to put their site under a .fr or a .com, knew the difference.

[webbie]

I agree with Deepindex as this is what I can see with people around me too...

The official domain name of a trademark is often a ".fr" (even if they buy the ".com" also, they do not communicate on it) and maybe that's why people are more confident with a ".fr"

[DeepIndex]

There is another important factor, more important to my eyes than the opinion on localized TLD or .COM.

To my experience, i understand and speak fluently 4 languages, is the content in it self.

In most languages, when you do a writing, must do it perfectly of course, but also it has to be in the cultur of the language. Translators do often, mostly, a perfect translation, much more perfect than a software, but do the words and phrases they translate correspond to the language culture on the web? I'm not sure of this, but i'm sure that a french men does feel if he is behind a perfectly translated site, or a french nativ site.

So i think that a localized TLD is better to communicate on than a .COM, this is my opinion of course even if i do also use .COM, before using a localized tld.

Best regards

[heini]

>a person should opt for a .FR domain

There are three options and two aspects to consider for a french language site targeting France.

Option 1 is a local (dot-fr) domain but international hosting.
Option 2 is a generic TLD and french hosting.
Option 3 is local domain plus local hosting.

#3 is the safest bet of them all. All possible itinerations of geo-targeted search are covered.

#2 works out okay with Google.

#1 works out okay with Google and all other SEs at this time.

The two main aspects to consider are search engine and directory coverage on the one hand and user acceptance on the other.
The question of user acceptance should best be left to the local members, personally I would still vote for ccTLDs anytime, especially in countries, where the local TLD is well introduced and still in theory restricted to local citizens.

For coverage in search engines still the most important factor is the language of the site. Only then followed by local hosting and local TLDs.
Most engines will per default search for pages in local language. Inclusion to drectories also will usually be possible for sites in local language and with local content.
For searches restricted to results form the country however either local domain or local hosting is the decisive factor.
With the exception of Google search engines are stuck with the local domain as qualifier.

So, in summary: best option would be local domain plus local hosting. Second best option would be local domain only. Third option, generic TLD but french hosting, might become more important in the future.

[louponne]

okay, I know I'm going to be called a trouble-maker here, but :

option 0 is a generic TLD and international hosting.

For coverage in search engines still the most important factor is the language of the site.

There I can't agree with your more, of course. And I agree entirely with DeepIndex that for real effectiveness, the translation must be done by someone translating to their mother tongue.

For searches restricted to results form the country however either local domain or local hosting is the decisive factor.

Sorry folks, I'm not trying to be difficult but I think I must be missing something here. Could someone give me an example of a major player French SE or directory that restricts to France and that does this? None that I know of favorize .fr or French-hosted domains on a France- or French-restricted search.
?

[heini]

Louponne, thanks for bringing in option 0.
Yes, french language and any domain, hosted anywhere, is the main point. Local language is the basis of it all.

With translating the site to the local language you have done the single most important step.
The options I discussed are only for further optimization of any localization. It's not just fanciness though.
>example of a major player French SE or directory that restricts to France
Google. Pages : France.

For further and more general thoughts see also this thread:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[louponne]

>example of a major player French SE or directory that restricts to France
Google. Pages : France.

Yes, of course, heini, and google isn't the only one - but you cut off half of my question - I asked for an example of a SE that restricts to France and gives any preference to .fr when it does so. Google does not at all, as far as my own tests show.

For further and more general thoughts see also this thread

Yes, I did follow that thread when it showed up, but again, I don't believe it applies at all to France/.fr!

[heini]

>preference
Nah, wouldn't know of any and have never seen any major engine giving a ranking boost to local TLDs.
It's only about in- exclusion, nothing else from the engines side of things.